Novadem to deliver about 50 more NX70 microdrones to French Army in 2021.

Novadem has received a new order from the DGA to reinforce its fleet of microdrones NX70 already used by French forces. Since 2018, the number of NX70 owned by the French Ministry of Defense has increased to reach more than 150 Novadem drones ordered.
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Novadem micro-drone NX70 take-off during evaluation at Canjuers military camp (Picture source: MBDA/Adrien Baste)

At the end of 2020, Novadem received a new order from the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) for about 50 more micro-drones NX70. This is the third order in two years. Since the initial order in 2018, the fleet of NX70 microdones used on external operations (OPEX) has never stopped growing every year. To date, the total order amouns to more than six million euros for about 150 N70 drones and more than 200 associated equipment and spare parts.

This new order demonstrates an evolution for NX70 night vision capabilities. In fact, thanks to the feedback from the soldiers on the field, Novadem has worked and equipped its drones with a thermal camera with a double resolution than the current one. This night performance is unrivalled by any system of this range. Half of the NX70 drones will be delivered with this new high-resolution thermal camera, named 640, for the purpose of the most demanding night missions driven by units specialised in observation and research. This is added to the existing versatility of the NX70 fleet, which is already equipped with tethered power supply for continuous observation and protection missions, and also data link terminal placed on vehicles or directly handled by soldiers allowing information sharing on the field.

The delivery will span on the first half of 2021, with the first units planned to be received by the DGA in April 2021. Then, after six months of work made by Novadem assembly teams in Aix-en-Provence, the rest of the systems, equipment and spare parts will close the delivery by the beginning of the summer.

Despite a complicated year for the sector with the cancellation of the defense exhibitions, Novadem has shown its resilience and closed 2020 with a growth of its revenue. The outlook for 2021 is already well underway both in production, thanks to this new order, and in R&D, with the project LynkEUs in partnership with the French company MBDA (this project is part of EDIDP: European Defence Industrial Development Programme). Thus, Novadem is still growing and recruiting in 2021, especially engineers and business developers.

In addition of recruitments, Novadem is planning to triple its offices and manufacturing surfaces, thanks to local partnerships. The company realizes all the design works, developments, manufacturing, tests and maintenance at the Arbois Technopole (Aix-en-Provence), the reason why Novadem is planning to expand its surfaces to 1,000m².

Since 2018, the number of NX70 owned by the French Ministry of Defense has increased to reach more than 150 Novadem drones ordered. (Picture source: MBDA/Adrien Baste)